Russian memorial complex to be created in Belgrade.

BELGRADE, January 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Serbia will restore 787
graves of Russian emigrants in the Serbian capital's new cemetery.
Belgrade's deputy mayor Milan Krokobabic, Russian Ambassador to Belgrade
Alexander Konuzin and Father Superior of the Russian Orthodox Church in
Belgrade Vitaly Tarasyev met in the Serbian capital late last year to sign
a protocol for cooperation.
The protocol which is part of the Russian Necropolis project
provides for the reconstruction of four sections in the New Cemetery in
Belgrade where the graves of 787 Russian emigrants are located, the
renovation of a Chapel of the Iberian Mother of Good and a crypt where the
remains of Russian soldiers and officers who fought and died in the
Balkans during WWI are interred.
"The purpose of this project is to create a memorial complex that
will demonstrate how carefully our two peoples remember and preserve our
common history," Krkobabic said after signing the protocol.
In turn, the Russian ambassador Alexander Konuzin said that the
Russian side would finance the project in which the gas monopoly Gazprom
and the United Russia party would also take part. Konuzin also suggested
that a plaque commemorating Russian defenders of the Kalemegdan fortress
be unveiled in its territory.
Many Russian military and political figures of the 20th century
are buried in Belgrade's new cemetery. They include General Mikhail
Alekseyev, the commander in chief of the Russian Armed Forces and the
founder of the Volunteers' Army, the last speaker of the State Duma
Mikhail Rodzyanko, Metropolitan Anthony of Kiev and Galicia, the first
hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church overseas, as well as Russian
soldiers and officers who helped defending Belgrade in 1915.
According to various estimates, between three and four thousand
Russians found their last refuge at the New cemetery in Belgrade.

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